My Moose

I wanted to take a moment and express my gratitude to the most amazing man I have ever met in my whole life. Not only have I been lucky enough to have met this man and had him in my life, but I have had the honor of marrying him. He is so kind and so patient... He has been especially helpful to me while I've been so very sick. He took me to and from the hospital. He even stayed with me while I was at the hospital. We were cute. We stayed in the same bed and everything. The nurses teased him and he slept in the bed while I was in surgery. He helped me with my IV when I needed to get up to use the bathroom (even though it bothered him). He was very brave to be there with me through it all. I am so grateful to him. I don't know what I would do without him. He fills my life with so much happiness. He is my best friend. And I am so lucky that I get to go through eternity with him. He is patient with me as I am learning all of the lessons that I need to learn in life. I am so imperfect and I can get very ornery...but he stays by my side and helps me through. I love him more than I have ever loved anyone or anything in my whole life. He is my everything. He is my husband. He is my moose. I love you sweetheart... And I look forward to our life together...

I had a whole bunch of other pictures that I scanned, but they wouldn't open in blogger...

CSU vs. BYU

Last Saturday, BYU played Colorado State at a home game. We won 35-16. The last touchdown that Colorado made was from a intercepted pass thrown by Gaskins. Yay!! His first touchdown pass!! Too bad it was for the wrong team. BYU won, but played terribly. It was like they knew that they were playing an easy team, so they didn't try very hard. It was like watching a Division II game or something. It wasn't very exciting and it was disappointed to see the team stumbling like they were. I just hope that they step it up in the up-coming games because they are going to be a lot harder.




It was a beautiful day for a game, perfect in fact. My parents came to the game. My dad rode from Idaho with his sister and my mom drove up from Cedar City, where she has been staying with my little sister. We watched the game together and then afterwards we went to the Brick Oven for lunch/dinner. It was really good.



I really enjoyed spending time with my parents. It was nice to hang out with them. We went to the bookstore and they got to see Spencer for a little bit before heading down to Cedar City. I wish that we could have hung out longer... But I think that my mom is going to come hang out this up-coming weekend. I'm excited. I just hope that I am well enough to have fun with her. I've been really sick this weekend. I don't know what I have...but I sure don't feel good. I've been sleeping almost non-stop and fever-ish and chilled and just not doing well. I'm resting and hoping to get better. If it gets any worse I'll probably go to the doctor...we'll keep you posted.



Aren't my parents cute?!?!

Mama Mia

For the last few weeks, Mia has been very tired. We went to the vet on October 18 and he was able to palpate the lumps that indicate that Mia was indeed pregnant. She is due November 22-24... Thanksgiving weekend. So Mia has been sleeping a lot and been trying to build a nest in the back yard and has not been as naughty, which is nice... She really doesn't like to move. She just likes to rest next to the door and the bottom stair. Although now that it is cold outside, she enjoys sleeping out there, too. She curls up into a ball and is so cute.

Well....the last few days I have noticed that Mia suddenly got a belly. It was so fast! She looks huge compared to how thin she normally is. I had to give her a new "haircut" so that I won't have to worry about it later. Her hair was so long that I didn't think that the puppies would be able to find their food supply, especially since they are blind for the first couple of weeks. I know that it looks ugly and is choppy, but I had to do it with scissors. The nice thing is that she was very patient and held still for me.

Her belly-button became an outie, too!! Just like in humans!! I thought that it was funny. You can see it in the middle of her belly. She has eight nipples, so on the countdown baby at the top of the blog, it shows eight human babies...I was just guessing. We find out on Wednesday, November 7, approximately how many puppies she will have by using an x-ray. Until then, I'm going to assume octuplets.

From this angle you can kind of see how big her belly is now. Once she lays down, she doesn't like to get back up. And each day she seems to get a LOT bigger.

This is the proud father-to-be watching over his girl. This is the first time for puppies for all of us...

He has been so needy for love and attention since Mia has mellowed out so much and doesn't feel like playing. I hope that he learns to entertain himself and leaves the puppies alone...

We'll let you know the results of the x-ray and keep you all posted on the progression of the puppies....

Halloween Continues...

I stole these pictures from Jenny's website because we didn't have any pictures of us on the Halloween post, and these were so cute. For more pictures, visit her blog: www.snakessnailsandtails.blogspot.com.

And this picture of the boys was irresistible. They were so excited to go trick-or-treating, especially little Jo. Speaking of which, Jonah has finally given me a name. It kind-of sounds like Brianna. I'll take whatever I can get, though!

ARGH!! I've heard it's worse than labor...

This has been a rough past two weeks. I have large kidney stones in both kidneys. I started having pain about 2 weeks ago. I had known about the stones for about 1 month, however, because I had blood in my urine and went to the ER and they could see the stones in my kidneys on a CT scan. Then, on Friday, the pain was so bad that I had to leave work early. My stupid urologist canceled our original date for surgery to go on a vacation and wouldn't let his partner do the surgery for him. So I took the matter into my own hands and would not rest until I found someone who would take the stones out instantly to relieve the pain. With some persistence, I was able to find someone who would do it that night. However, my potassium level was dangerously low and put me at a huge risk to so into a cardiac dysrhythmia or cardiac arrest. It was a little scary. So they replaced my potassium all night and I went to surgery the next morning. Her name is Dr. Lisa Stout. She is great and her whole group, the Middleton group, is wonderful. They were so kind and helpful. I nearly cried when the first doctor called me back and said that he would find someone to do it for him since he couldn't.

The surgery went well. It was at Alta View Hospital, which I had never been to before. It's really very cute. After surgery I was still in horrific pain, so I had to stay for another day. I tried to be helpful to the nurses, but I think that sometimes it just stressed them out.

And yesterday, my mom sent me some beautiful "get well" flowers. Aren't they stunning?! I just love Gerber daisy's. And I love autumn colors. I am doing alright now... still a lot of pain and spasming of my bladder/ureter. I am having the stent removed on Friday and surgery for the other side on Monday. So just remember me in your prayers.

I love you all!! Thank you for all of your love and concern. And a special thanks to my mom, the BAM. Thank you for caring about me and worrying about me, it lets me know that you love me. I think that you are an amazing mother. Keep up the good work... Don't the get well flowers go well with my date flowers from Spence??

Hey, I'm super tired as I'm doing this and on pain killers, do don't take it seriously and cut me some slack if there are spelling and/or grammar problems.

My Hot Italian Date

Last Wednesday, Spencer and I both had the night off. So Spencer asked me to go on an official date. He planned the whole evening and even brought me roses! Aren't they gorgeous!?!

He picked me up at the door with my favorite roses (yellow with pink tips) in hand and took me out to dinner at a delicious pizzaria called Settebello. He opened all of my doors and it even felt a little awkward, as though we were on a first date...isn't that funny?!

Settebello is an authentic Italian pizzeria. It specializes in the Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN). This is a style of pizza making that requires that the dough is made from specific raw ingredients, worked with the hands, never a rolling pin, and that it be cooked directly on the surface of a bell-shaped pizza oven that is fueled solely by wood. The oven temperature is about 900 degrees Fahrenheit. It also requires specific types of tomatoes and fresh milk or buffalo milk mozzarella (Spencer's favorite part is the buffalo mozzarella). We got two pizzas, the Margherita and the Settebello. I love the pine-nuts and buffalo mozzarella. The crust of the pizza is very thin and it takes seconds in the hot oven for the pizza to be done. It is very good. And it's fun because it doesn't come cut, you rip it into pieces with your hands and then fold it over on itself to eat it. Spencer can't get enough. It made him homesick.

While we were at the restaurant, we played Italian card games called Scopa and Briscola. I don't know how I do it, but I almost always win against Spencer, which of course makes him angry and frustrated, which I find adorable.... Settebello is like the Joker of American cards, it's the best card you can get and helps you win. It is the seven of coins (the top card in the above picture). That's what the restaurant is named after. It was really cute for us to play the game at the restaurant. All around the restaurant was picture frames with different versions of the face cards on display. It was very interesting. Of course our favorite ones were the Sicily ones...

After dinner, we got some gelato, which is an Italian dessert that is kind-of like icecream, but different. It is more like a slush than a cream. I don't know... but it is so delicious. I especially like the fruit flavors. It looks different, but I recomment it to everyone.

This date was a blast! Plus, it fulfilled one of Spencer's assignments for a cultural event. Even though the motive was partly school-related, I was still grateful to have my sweetheart take me out and take care of me. It was so nice to just take my mind off of everything going on and just enjoy being with my honey. He still gives me butterflies. Thank you Spencer for such a wonderful evening... heaven knows that we both needed it. I love you!

Happy Halloween!!

This year, Spencer and I spent Halloween at the Riggs' house. I spent the morning trying to keep my kidney pain under control (I had surgery with stent placement for kidney stones last Saturday and the stents are causing excruciating pain and bladder/ureter spasms). I also did some work around the house. Then this afternoon, I met up with Spencer before practice and then went over to the Riggs' home to hang out with my nephews for the holiday. Plus, I owed them two more jack-o-lantern carvings. I got right to work because it took me so long last time to do just one (which is shriveled and molded by now anyways...). Bently was a huge help. He chose the vampire going in to suck on a girl's neck (perhaps some underlying Freudian something or other??? he tells me that he likes girls....). It looks really neat and was easier than the spider that I had done previously (see the bottom of this page and also look at Jenny's blog: Snakes, Snails, and Puppy-dog Tails). Bently was good at supervising and keeping the dogs away. Here is his pumpkin...

Then Max and Jonah agreed that the other pumpkin should be a witch. Jonah was also convinced that I should be a good witch for Halloween. And Bently decided that Spencer should be the Grim Reaper (he even used his voice of darkness and doom). This pumpkin took a little bit longer to carve because the pieces were so thin. In fact, the kids started trick-or-treating before I could finish. I still managed to get it done by 7:30, though. Here it is in all it's glory....

Jenny and John were nice enough to buy us some Mexican food for dinner. It was soooo good! Thanks to you both. It was so nice of you to do that. I felt bad for John, he had to stay home from work with a cold.

After dinner and jack-o-lantern carving, Spencer and I answered the door for trick-or-treaters and handed out candy. Our dogs were in the back yard going crazy because they could hear all of the kids and excitement. While we answered the door, John, Jenny, Bently, Max, Jonah, and Ruby went trick-or-treating together. John went as a "dad" and Jenny went as a "cowgirl" according to Bently.

Bently went as a knight...

Maxwell went as a Red Power Ranger...

Jonah didn't want his picture taken and Spencer had to chase him around the house and Jenny had to hold him hostage...

Jonah went as a Red "Go Go" Power Ranger, too...

Ruby went as a bumble-bee....

And I was a "good" witch, although I think that I looked more like a leper because I chemically burned my face and it was like a giant scab. I think that the kids chose this one for me because I look like a witch with my frizzy hair and crooked nose and acne (kinda like warts)...

Spencer looked more like a zombie than the grim reaper.... He has been so very busy and exhausted. It breaks my heart to see how tired he is. I wish that I could help him out in some way. I love him more than anything. So please pray for my sweetie just to make it through each day, and then through the semester...

This is the spider carving I did earlier. I know....it looks like a scorpion...

This is me cleaning out the pumpkin and the kids (Jonah, Maxwell, and Mia) watching because they don't like to touch the goo...

This is me carving clear into the night. It serves me right for being a perfectionist. Mia is the only one who stayed by my side through the whole ordeal...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO EVERYONE!!

p.s. please send copies of pictures....